The new plant will consist of 10 2mw generators, six power storage units, a transformer and four fuel storage units, all housed in galvanised steel enclosures.

A total of 30,000 litres of fuel would be stored at the site, and would be used by the National Grid in the event of a regional or national energy crisis.

A report for First Renewable, the firm behind the energy park, says peak power plants have to be operational within 30 seconds of such a crisis.

The report also says the plant is necessary to provide essential back-up power during times of peak power demand on the National Grid and therefore is a complimentary component of the adjacent solar and wind developments, which are intermittent.

The National Grid aims to maintain a 20 per cent supply margin (ie it always has that much more energy than is needed) but currently operates at a margin of just four per cent.

The report says: “The average operation for other plants of this type in the UK is 38 hours per annum and therefore it is anticipated that the proposed facility would also operate for about 38 hours.

“To ensure our assessments are robust, we have increased the number of hours to carry out our assessments to 75 hours; about twice the average operation.

“It is extremely unlikely the facility would be operating outside of this window, and would only occur if the facility was instructed to operate for the National Grid in times of regional and national emergency.

“This will most likely be between the hours of 4pm and 8pm.

“During this time, the generators would typically operate for about two hours.